Wizards Coach Flip Saunders fired

[SpecialQue]

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA

After a 2-15 start to the season, the Washington Wizards have fired Flip Saunders as coach, a league source tells Y! Sports.


Something had to give.

[hawkfan]

A good coach gets fired due to moronic players who don't want to listen to him.

[Lebron23]

http://gifs.gifbin.com/20048442yu.gif

[Bob Cousy]

they don't read scouting reports and they all take possessions off. They were trying to get him fired.

[Clocian-IGN]

wow..

[The Ownage]

Slightly surprising. I wonder who will replace him?

[PJR]

Sloan!

[SpecialQue]

Slightly surprising. I wonder who will replace him?

Probably not permanent, but:

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA

The Wizards have talked to assistant coach Randy Wittman about taking the interim coaching job, but nothing official yet, sources say.

[Sarcastic]

Slightly surprising. I wonder who will replace him?

I hope it's D'Antoni.

[hawkfan]

Larry Brown would be a good choice.

[Faptastrophe]

Been butting heads with his team all year. A shame, really. Flip seems like an old fashioned good guy stuck in a new era of misfits.

According to sources, Wizards have hired Mrs. McGee as head coach.

[Hammertime]

Yay, now the lunatics can take over the asylum completely.

Do the owners of the team actually believe there is a coach somewhere who could coach this bunch to a better record?

[chocolatethunder]

Larry Brown would be a good choice.
Haha. Larry Brown wouldn't want any part of that team. I'm not sure of there's a coachable guy on that roster. I don't think he'd be able to find five guys on that team that he'd be willing to work with.

[kNIOKAS]

Jax come
You have lots of egos to manage
Lots of chemistry to build up

[JMT]

Well, that should fix everything.

I know they say you can't fire the team, but would that many fewer people come out to watch Saunders walk up and down the sidelines while the opposition had a shoot around?

[alenleomessi]

Good, now get rid of Blatche and Crawford

[mattvNJ]

bout time, hope he gets another gig. He's a good coach, its hard to coach a bunch of people who have no concept of what team basketball is and have no intention of learning.

[Harison]

A good coach gets fired due to moronic players who don't want to listen to him.

Calling Flip Saunders a good coach is a mighty exaggeration, but I do agree Wiz are full of uncoachable morons.

[Xiao Yao You]

Calling Flip Saunders a good coach is a mighty exaggeration

Really. What has he done? I doubt he'll be at the top of others teams lists anymore when they go looking for new coaches.


Larry Brown wouldn't want any part of that team.

He'd jump at the chance to coach a pg like Wall.

[JMT]

Calling Flip Saunders a good coach is a mighty exaggeration, but I do agree Wiz are full of uncoachable morons.


Five losing seasons in 15 years. Two of those were 40-42 (a season after taking over a T'wolves team that went 20-42) and 25-26 (again, Minnesota).

Career win % somewhere in the 60% range before taking over this awful bunch.

He's a good coach. This may be the worst NBA roster I've seen in two decades.

[Rnbizzle]

This won't fix anything, but I'm not surprised.

I think they might win a bunch of games with a new coach at first because they wanna show it's not on them and they'll play hard to begin with, but in the end this team is still full of boneheads who don't play winning basketball. That's why I think in the long run nothing will change.

[insidehoops]

My quick take on the matter:

http://www.insidehoops.com/blog/?p=9123

[Harison]

Really. What has he done?

Thats a good question, he havent really done anything.


Five losing seasons in 15 years. Two of those were 40-42 (a season after taking over a T'wolves team that went 20-42) and 25-26 (again, Minnesota).


Either KG carried teams, or stacked Pistons, what notable Flip did? Its like saying if Lebron carried Cavs, Mike is a great coach. He isnt, or lets say - at least he knows defense, Flip doesnt know anything well.

[FireDavidKahn]

And he got replaced by Randy Wittman?

:oldlol: :oldlol: :oldlol: :oldlol: :oldlol:

The Wizards just got a whole lot worse.:oldlol:

Randy Wittman is Rambis-esque at coaching:oldlol: :oldlol: :oldlol:

[bagelred]

Hope he doesn't "flip" out.

[bballnoob]

He really looked like a defeated man that last game. Barring a personnel purge, I don't think even the allure of Wall could attract many big name coaches. The roster is just extremely flawed and difficult to coach.

Not a huge fan of Flip but I don't think there's any coach in the league that could have done much with this roster especially as apparently he didn't have backing of his front office.

[BarberSchool]

Jax come
You have lots of egos to manage
Lots of chemistry to build upHalf the Wizards squad would probly try to ignore and antagonize Phil Jackson himself if he told them things contrary to what they want to hear.

They are a sad sad squad full of mental disease. Turiaf is positive, but too goofy to ever be a vet leader. And both Lewis and Mason are way too soft spoken and introverted to take the lead in that locker room.

Flip knew he f#@ked up game 1 after making Blatche a captain.

[FireMcFailPlease]

and they have randy wittman replace him, who historically has one of the worst winning %ages in the league. i know washingtons going no where fast...but seriously, why waste your time with wittman?

[BarberSchool]

and they have randy wittman replace him, who historically has one of the worst winning %ages in the league. i know washingtons going no where fast...but seriously, why waste your time with wittman?Maybe ownership really just wants to do two things out of spite:

1. Slap the ignorant players in their collective faces.
2. Pocket the $ they would've spent on another coach.

[shallehalle]

McGee could be a playing coach until the all-star game

[Sakkreth]

McGee could be a playing coach until the all-star game

What about Javale's mom ?

[FireDavidKahn]

johnhollinger John Hollinger
First thought: "They had tuned out Flip, so virtually any new coach would help them." Second thought: "Except Randy Wittman"
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Retweeted by Rubioops:lol

[MooseJuiceBowen]

flip saunders is a terrible coach who likes to cry and whine. not sure how hes been coaching for so long

[The Macho Man]

Any change is positive change at this point, and frankly any coach who makes Blatche team captain and gives him significant minutes should be fired.

[FireDavidKahn]

Any change is positive change at this point, and frankly any coach who makes Blatche team captain and gives him significant minutes should be fired.
I honestly don't think you realize who just replaced him.

[cranincu]

Flip Saunders gave up on this team the moment preseason rolled out

Remember when he benched all his starters in the preseason game and said flat out to the press "I was tired of watching that shit"

Edit:
http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-wizards/2011/12/17/2642473/flip-saunders-wizards-vs-76ers-nba-preseason
pretty much straight up says theyre uncoachable too

[InspiredLebowski]

Hire Jim O'Brien. Please.

He honestly would make those morons work hard at least.

[The Big Skinny]

Poor guy was put in a shitty situation. That roster is young and terrible. With that being said, he really didn't do much of anything at all. Its one thing to have a bad team, its another thing to lose your locker room.

Would like to see a veteran coach who can actually teach these players. Not a ego-manager type coach. Something similar to Doug Collins in Philly.

Hopefully Randy Wittman can inspire these young guys to at least play better, play like a team, etc. Wins don't really matter at this point.

[JMT]

Either KG carried teams, or stacked Pistons, what notable Flip did? Its like saying if Lebron carried Cavs, Mike is a great coach. He isnt, or lets say - at least he knows defense, Flip doesnt know anything well.

No coach wins without players. For his first couple seasons, Gugliotta was the 'go to' guy on those T'Wolves teams. Then KG and Starbury. Then KG and Brandon. KG was a star, but there was nothing about those teams that made them automatic winners. Poor depth and guys that, aside from KG, never delivered big at any other stop in their careers.

The stacked Pistons team won 10 more games with him than they did the year before with Larry Brown.

[irondarts]

They should just have the players coach the team themselves rather than waste a couple million bucks a year paying a guy the players won't listen to anyway.


(Kidding, sort of).

[SpecialQue]

Flip Saunders gave up on this team the moment preseason rolled out

Remember when he benched all his starters in the preseason game and said flat out to the press "I was tired of watching that shit"

Edit:
http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-wizards/2011/12/17/2642473/flip-saunders-wizards-vs-76ers-nba-preseason
pretty much straight up says theyre uncoachable too

Can't argue with that statement though.

Also, holy shit, I've never had a thread of mine stickied before.

:djparty
:dancin :hammertime: :party:




:milton

[Harison]

No coach wins without players. For his first couple seasons, Gugliotta was the 'go to' guy on those T'Wolves teams. Then KG and Starbury. Then KG and Brandon. KG was a star, but there was nothing about those teams that made them automatic winners. Poor depth and guys that, aside from KG, never delivered big at any other stop in their careers.

The stacked Pistons team won 10 more games with him than they did the year before with Larry Brown.

Great coaches get the most out of players, have good offensive and defensive schemes (or at least get assistants who do), can manage their egos, team delivers better out of time-outs, etc.

Flip does none of those things well. I was watching him for over a decade, he is bellow average coach. Even Mike Brown is better, who can only do one thing well - defense, nothing else.

What concerns Pistons, Larry won championship in one of the greatest overachievements in NBA history in '04, in '05 he was in the Finals again. Flip took over after that, and outside of winning more games in the regular season, can you say anything good about those Pistons teams? No championships, no Finals. Mike Brown was also winning a lot of Regular season games (more like Lebron was), it didnt mean squat in the Playoffs.

[305Baller]

some trades could help too

[JellyBean]

I am surprised that it took this long. I love Flip, but he was in way over his head with this team. Then to let Randy Wittman take over....:roll: It is going to get worse for the Wizards.

[Da KO King]

The Wizards aren't trying to win. They are in rebuild mode. Ted Leonsis, the owner, believe in building through the draft. He's fine with losses piling up.

Flip Saunders was fired because he couldn't get a good effort out of his guys and his players were not improving. Honestly, Saunders should have been let go a long time ago. He was the wrong coach for Leonsis' rebuild phase.

[JMT]

Great coaches get the most out of players, have good offensive and defensive schemes (or at least get assistants who do), can manage their egos, team delivers better out of time-outs, etc.

Flip does none of those things well. I was watching him for over a decade, he is bellow average coach. Even Mike Brown is better, who can only do one thing well - defense, nothing else.

What concerns Pistons, Larry won championship in one of the greatest overachievements in NBA history in '04, in '05 he was in the Finals again. Flip took over after that, and outside of winning more games in the regular season, can you say anything good about those Pistons teams? No championships, no Finals. Mike Brown was also winning a lot of Regular season games (more like Lebron was), it didnt mean squat in the Playoffs.


Let's begin by clarifying that nobody said Saunders was a "great" coach. That's a term that's thrown around and overused in sports in general.

Saunders throughout his career has been recognized as a very good defensive coach. That Detroit team ran into Miami and a career-defining post season from Wade in the ECF. That he didn't match the level of success Larry Brown had with those players? Well, add him to a long list. Brown legitimately is a "great" coach.

Saunders is a solid NBA coach who took over a dysfunctional team and franchise in Washington, wasn't able to get a professional level of effort out of a horrible group of players, and probably deserved to be fired. But to call someone who has had 10 winning seasons out of 15 in the NBA a "below average coach" is ridiculous imo.